


The Only Exception

by Romanroyale



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Black Pather, F/M, Marvel - Freeform, T'challa - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-05 01:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13377216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Romanroyale/pseuds/Romanroyale
Summary: After SHIELD came down in fire and fury, The Garrison was built to sort the Hydra agents from the Hydra agents from the good guys. Reina is just a computer analyst working for The Garrison when she discovers the deepest darkest secrets Hydra tried to keep secrets for years. Starting with an assassination attempt on the King of Wakanda. Reina finds herself in over her head when she ends up trying to save T'challa.





	1. Chapter 1

The sounds of heels clacking sent shattering echoes alongside the ravine. The foggy mist rose and fell underneath the hallowing moonlight and Reina was wishing that she had brought a thicker jacket. She was also painfully aware of the throb at the back of her ankles from the stilettoes she was wearing. Red and beautiful and tall they were a poor choice, but it wasn’t even close to the biggest mistake she had made that night.   
She clutched the small black handbag next to her a little tighter as she tried not to breath out to hard. It was almost like she could feel the flash drive banging around in her bag. It felt like an explosive ready to go off any moment. She had always been a good girl. Never got in trouble for anything and no one would even question her about doing anything. That’s why she was the one who had to steal the flash drive. The Ravine seemed to stretch on for miles. She still had a long walk a head of her and she couldn’t slow down. Not for anything. 

“OVER THERE! I SEE SOMEONE OVER THERE!” That was the shout from near the bridge. Raenia’s breath caught in her throat but she never stopped trotting along, she knew if she started running she would trip and fall and then it would be all over. 

“Crap, crap, crap, crap” she repeated under her breath. It wasn’t too bad. The bridge was far enough away that she was still in the clear. She would only start to worry if she heard footsteps any close-

There were several steps that sounded too close for comfort. She turned around and stopped in her tracks. There was nothing but mist swirling around her as she looked around. She could hear nothing but her own shallow breaths now. No more footsteps or shouting. Her heart was pounding now and it seemed to be worse than when she could hear the footsteps. For some reason she couldn’t move any further. 

Then was a whisper. Quiet and barely moving like the mist. “move.” It said quietly. She took a step back now involuntarily. “MOVE” 

She was running now, not caring about losing her heels or her feet slamming in the cold slimy water. 

—————— 

An hour later she crossed the threshold into her warm and cozy apartment. She sighed in relief as her feet touched soft carpet, not allowing herself to think about how soar and awful her feet were for walking an hour without shoes. She looked down at the bag and pulled it open and checked again. There it was, the shiny silver flash drive glinted at her begging her to open it up. 

She should try and shower, get some food inside of her and clean up her feet but she could only think of one thing. She grabbed the drive and let the bag fall to the floor. She trotted over to her dining room table and opened the waiting laptop. As she booted it up she thought about the voice she’d heard in the mist. What was that about? 

Finally the laptop was on and Reina plugged in the drive and took a deep breath. A folder popped up and clicked on it every nerve in her body tingling. 

A box opened wanting a password for the folder and Reina cursed softly.   
“Run Encryption” She said under her breath pressing the necessary keys. As the password breaker began to run she got up and went to the kitchen to grab left over pizza she was sure was about a day old. Seeing the encryption was going to take some time she took her bath and washed her feet. Thirty minutes later she sat at the table again feeling marginally better but like her heart was going to explode out of her chest.   
There was a small computer like sound that meant the password had been broken. Eagerly she began to probe into the files. 

“ holy shit.” She said breathlessly after only a few minutes. 

——————-

The Garrison was by far the tallest building around the Downtown Washington area and it had the distinct smell of money to it. Tony Stark money is how Reina liked to think of it. The building had been rebuilt from the frail smaller building that was once in its place. Tony Stark has seen to its building personally and you could tell that Tony liked tall buildings. The Garrison was the place where all the shit hit the fan for the bad guys. After SHIELD went down after the nasty Hydra business , someone had to sort the Nazis from the people who genuinely tried to serve their country. That’s where Reina came in. She liked to think of herself as an investigator, a detective even. She was in charge of finding all the electronic paper trails for each case that came her way. Normally she liked it, loved it even exposing the stuff that bad guys thought they had done so well to cover up. She normally didn’t have to leave her desk and when she went home she was done for the day. But not this time. This time she had some information that she had to work for. Information she had stolen.   
She’d perused every file up and down the night before and reread every piece of information at least twice. It wasn’t at all what she thought she was looking for.   
She had been on the case of one of the higher ranking Hydra implants, and she thought the information she had risked her life to steal would just be about the crimes he committed to rise higher in SHIELD ranks. But instead she’d found out something that blew a hole in everything she’d every worked on. 

Reina entered the Garrison building not stopping to wave or say hi to anyone. She headed straight for the elevator and giving. A sorry glance to someone who asked her to hold the elevator. She didn’t. Up to the 23rd floor she went hardly noticing people getting off and on. When it finally came to her stop she got out and made a hard right. She stood in front of Dr. Jennifer Horn’s door taking a deep breath before she rapped hard on her bosses door. 

“ come in.” 

Reina pushed the door open and felt like the files in her hand were heavy as a brick. Horns looked up and gave her a small smile. 

“ what can I do for you Reina?”

Reina sat down hard and fast in her chair. She didn’t say anything for a moment and Horns gave her a look that said - spit it out - . 

“ I was looking into information on the Ferdinand case.” Reina began. Horns nodded as if she expected that this was what it would be about. 

“ I was tracing his work, his crimes, receipts and purchases like normal but I kept coming across some bug in my system. I thought it was just maybe some faulty files or something but I kept digging. And I realized the system was glitching on me becuase there were some files that were in the system but not on the system.” 

Horns frowned in confusion. “ your the computer nerd here Reina what do you mean they were in the system but not on the system.” 

Reina frowned. “ someone manually deleted the files. They did a good job of erasing he data but a really poor job in covering their tracks. The computer recognized that things were missing from the files.”

Horns eyebrow seemed to raise even more “ manually deleted ? From our system? That’s -“ 

Reina cut her off “ impossible I know. So that’s why I knew I needed to see what were on the files. So I plugged into the mainframe. “ 

Horns froze. She was quiet for a long moment before she said. “ Reina are you telling me our security breach last night.... was you?” 

Reina swallowed heavily. “ yes. “ 

Horns shook her head violently and wordlessly. 

“ look I know I can get fired for this.” Reina said surprising herself with how calm she sounded. “but there’s some information that needs to get out to the right people.” 

“ this is - Reina they’ll have your head on a stick!!!!” Horns growled. She picked up her desk phone and started dialing and Reina’s heart fell in her chest. 

She began to blurt. “ the information I uncovered laid down the groundwork for some unfinished plans. There is an assassination plan for the king of Wakanda ! “ 

Horns put down the phone hard and stared at Reina.   
“ are you absolutely sure about this.”   
Reina nodded. “ Tonight at the UN meeting.” 

Horns sighed and lowered her voice and Reina was more scared now than she had been the night before. 

“ listen to me carefully. “ Horns said. “The Garrison has been under attack from the inside for a while now. People have gone missing, information has been stolen and higher ranking officers aren’t doing anything about it. “ Horns sighed. “ I believe the Garrison has just become another Hydra hit job. If I call now and give any of that information to the higher ups. I’m dead and your dead.” 

“ wha- what am I supposed to do then?” Reina said stuttering over her words as her heart raced in her chest. 

Horns reached into her purse and pulled out a pass attached to a neck chain. It had Horn’s name on it Reina noticed before she grabbed it from her.   
“ go to the council meeting tonight. Get an audience with the King. Convince him his life is in danger and then get the hell out. And I mean out of Washington. Wait until this blows over before you come back. Go no Reina.”   
Reina stood blinking fast. How I’m the hell was she going to do all of that? 

“ and Reina.” Horns said before Reina left the room. “ tell absolutely no one what your doing.”


	2. Chapter 2

Reina hadn’t thought that the biggest problem she’d have in her plan, would be not having anything to wear. She was pacing around her small apartment trying to think about how she was going to pull off not only pretending to be her boss, but getting an audience with the King of Wakanda!

She groaned as she looked into her mess of a closet and tried to fish out something that looked “businessy” enough. She was used to being somewhat casual at her work becuase she spent the whole day behind computers. No one really needed to see her other than Horns so she never really invested in slacks and pants suits. 

She was throwing on a semi presentable outfit when the doorbell rang. Her heart caught in her throat and she almost fell over the clothes she had scattered over the floor. 

Had they already found her out ? 

As quietly as she could she moved to the door and gazed out of the peephole. After a second she took a giant sigh of relief and swung the door open for Chris. Chris Hardwell had been her neighbor for 4 years and her best friend for almost the same amount of time. 

“Hey Chris” she said moving back to her closet now that she was no longer scared for her life. 

“ You look fancy.” Chris commented with a hint of surprise as he shut the door after him. “ where are you going?”

“ oh just a work thing tonight.” Reina called from the closet as she fitted on her pumps. 

“ you never go to work things.” Chris said a small smile on his face that Reina couldn’t see. 

Reina came around the corner fluffing her hair out and 6 inches taller than she had been before. She was pretty, but not in the way that screamed model or anything. Her skin was a smooth chocolate brown and her hair was twisted into beautiful bouncy curls.   
She did a little twirl for Chris her hands outstretched. 

“ how do I look?” She asked giving a hopeful smile to Chris. 

Chris coughed a bit before he got out his answer. “ you look good dufus.” 

Reina smiled and rolled her eyes. “ thanks asswipe” she went over to her purse checking for her car keys her wallet, the USB and her fake UN badge. 

“You still didn’t answer my question though.” Chris said softly. 

Reina looked up and raised an eyebrow. “ It’s just a work thing.”

Chris raised an eyebrow back. “ We both know you don’t go to work things. It’s Friday. On Fridays we go terrorize karaoke bars order pizza and watch all of the Lord of the Rings until our eyes hurt. You don’t go to work things.” 

Reina sighed and turned on Chris. There was no way she could tell him everything as much as she wanted to. She trusted Chris but some part of her knew that giving him any information would end up with him hurt. 

“Fine. I’m going on a date.” She blurted before she could think of anything better to say. 

There was a flicker of some kind of emotion across Chris’ face that Reina didn’t recognize before he said “ a date ?” 

Reina nodded. She’d already lied might as well continue . “ yep. With a guy from work. He’s taking me to a work thing tonight.” 

Chris’ eyebrows raised even higher.   
“ what guy from work? You don’t talk to anyone ?!” 

Reina frowned. “ I do ! And his name is ... Ben and we’re going on a date at a work thing!” She was aware of how defensive she sounded now but honestly how couldn’t she? 

It was silent for a while and Chris crossed his arms over his chest. “ why are you lying to me ?”   
Reina sighed. Chris knew her all to well.  
“Are you in some kind of trouble Rei ?” He asked softly coming closer. 

She was but she didn’t want to bring him in on this.   
“ no I’m not ! Is it so hard to believe that someone asked me out?”   
There was pain in his eyes this time. “ no of course not! Its just… We always hang out on Fridays” 

Reina felt bad now, Chris was of course right about everything, without really ever speaking it, they had hung out almost every Friday for the past four years. And she never really did go to work things, and she didnt even know if anyone at her work was named Ben. Raina sighed grabbing her purse and looking at Chris who kind of looked like she’d kicked his puppy. 

“Look your right.” She said lowering her voice. “ I’m not going on a date. But I am going to a work thing. Something major happened at work and I have to deliver something to someone or else they could be in a lot of trouble.” 

Chris was just frowning now. “ So you are in some kind of trouble?” 

Reina nodded, feeling a little relieved that she wasn’t completely lying to her best friend now. “ Just a little, I’ll be fine , I have to go though.” 

She tried to step around Chris but he just backed up and blocked the door. “ I’m going with you dufus.” 

Reina gaped and almost laughed. “ No way asswipe.” 

Chris rolled his eyes. “ I’m not letting my best friend go out alone on some top secret Garrison mission without me. Plus after you do what you gotta do, we can still hit up the pizza place. Im starved.” 

Reina rolled her eyes right back but felt her resolve waning. It would be nice to have someone with her.   
Chris saw this In her too and went to open the door. “ I’ll stay in the car don’t worry, just think of me as the get away driver.” 

—————

“ Pass?” Asked the extremely tall and extremely buff security guard at the entrance to the Security Council Doors. Reina blinked for a moment and then gathered herself to dig around her bag as nonchalant as possible. She handed over Horn’s pass which he scanned without really looking at it. There was a little beep and he handed the pass back to her nodding her forward. She took a sigh of relief as she stepped in. She was expecting something a little more high tech, like her finger print or something. It seemed strange that it was probably harder to get into Disneyland than it was the UN council meeting. 

Once inside she was a little breathless at the sight in front of her. The roof of the building seemed to extend on forever. There were golden staircases nd beautiful paintings everywhere. It reminded her of a billionaires mansion. 

“Wow.” She whispered to herself as she blended in with the hundreds of people moving around and waiting around. 

“Is that him? The King? What was the name of the country? Wambuka or Wakanda or something?” This was the prissy looking girl behind her. Reina followers her gaze as an ensemble of people came walking through the front door. At least eight people moved in sync and in the head Reina recognized T’challa. Her heart caught in her throat as she saw him. Suddenly everything became to real. And the flash drive in her pocket was again feeling like a ticking time bomb. She moved forward without even thinking heading straight for the King and his security. 

“Um excuse me.” She said weakly heading straight for him. 

“No Journalist or paparazzi” said the female gaurd closest to T’challa. It was like they hadnt seen her at all and kept walking. She moved again to keep up ignoring the millions of eyes on her back. 

“I’m not a journalist.” She said a bit louder this time. Where was her big girl voice? “ I work at the Garrison. And I have to give you some important information.” 

“Go away lady.” Said the woman again. But this time the group had stopped and they were all staring at her. Including T’challa. 

Reina tried to muster up her confidence. “Look I know you have no reason to believe me, but I really need to talk to the King.” 

The women opened her mouth to speak again her eyes hard and sharp. She took a step forward and Reina involuntarily took one back. She was about to say something when T’challa interrupted. 

“Let her be Shuri.” He said and then nodded at Reina. “ There are a few minutes before the meeting begins. Come speak with me.” 

Shuri was still giving her a hard look as Reina almost jogged to keep up with T’challa who had begun walking again. 

“um Sir, uh well.” Reina could have slapped herself at how stupid she sounded. 

T’challa looked at her a small smile on his worn face. It was almost imperceptible but she could hear the teasing in his voice. 

“What is it that you needed to tell me?” 

Reina took a deep breath. “ I think someone is planning to kill you tonight.” She said sounding surprisingly calm. T’challa kept walking as if she had said the sky was blue. 

“and what makes you think that?” He asked facing forward again. 

Her lips parted surprised at how much he didn’t seem to care. He smiled his tiny smile again . “ People are always trying to kill me. How should this be any different?” 

Reina understood then. His aloofness wasn’t really aloofness, he was just used to this.

“Well like I said I work for the Garrison. I’m just a computer analyst but I was on a case of a Hydra agent and I found … things.” 

“Things?” He repeated raising an eyebrow. 

“Well plans more like it. I found Hydra plans to assassinate you. Tonight. I mean it didn’t make sense at first because SHIELD was shut down almost a year ago, so why would they have plans this far in advance? They plans they keep mentioning the same word over and over again. It was Kind. I don’t know what it means or what the full plan Is but I just – “ 

They had reached the front door of the council meeting and T’challa turned to her again a small smile playing on his lips. He looked at her name tag for a second then back up at her.   
“ Listen Ms. Horns. I appreciate your concern but as the King of Wakanda I have multiple security measures in place.” He gestured to the group behind him that was watching her silently. “ As you can see I am very well taken care of.” 

“But-“ Reina began but T’challa was finished talking to her. 

“Have a good night.” He gave a slight bow before entering the room. Reina watched a bit defeated as his entourage followed suit, no longer paying her the slightest attention.   
\-----------------

Reina chucked her shoes off as soon as the door to Chris’ truck swung close. She was frustrated, angry and a bit embarrassed and having her toes swollen was definitely not helping her mood. 

“Shit.” She muttered under her breath her face in her hands. She hadn’t been able to convince him that he should at the very least leave the council meeting. She didn’t really know what all the plan entailed but she knew that it was something dangerous. 

“Shit!” She said again and banged the dashboard feeling a little guilty about hitting Chris’ car. 

“Didn’t go well?” Chris asked quietly. He hadn’t said a word after he had unlocked the car for her. She had wobbled up to the car looking way more disheveled than she had when she had left the car. Chris was parked somehow miraculously across the street of the building. They had gotten there early enough to get a good spot. She could see everyone exiting and entering the building. All the cars speeding past or teetering by. 

She was looking out the window now. She was grateful that Chris hadn’t really asked her what happened because he knew that more than likely she wouldn’t be able to tell him about it. It was the reason she had first began to keep him around. He knew when to quit asking her questions. Or when to not ask them at all. 

She sighed and shot Chris an apologetic look. “I’m sorry I had you waiting so long out here. You could have been chilling or something. 

Chris gave her a smile that cheered her a bit. “ I wouldn’t have had fun all by myself. “ 

Reina gave him a smile back that felt like the first genuine one she had given all day. Chris looked away from her for a moment then back at her. 

“Look Rai,- I have to tell you something…. I – “   
Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the commotion that exploded right outside on the street. Reina swirled around in shock at the sounds of a car skidding to a stop. The street was well lit enough to show the blue sedan’s wheel’s smoking slightly. There in front of the car was T’challa crouched over something that Reina couldn’t really see. 

“What the hell?” She said sliding out of the car. 

“Reina!” Chris called after her as she got closer. Traffic had stopped now and everyone was watching. As Reina got closer she realized that T’challa was hunched over a child. The child was so pale she seemed to contrast T’challa’s dark clothing sharply. Reina realized in a rush what had happened. T’challa had run into the street and saved the little girl from getting hit by a speeding car. 

T’challa removed his arms from around the girl and cupped her face giving her a once over. He was talking to her but Reina couldn’t hear what they were saying. Chris was next to her now and he was looking impressed. The people around them were cheering and talking excitedly about the saved life.

“Wow. That dude’s cool. To save that kid like that.” 

“Wait.” Reina said her hand outstretched as her brain began to spend quickly.   
“ I know this I know this I know this.” She mumbled to herself and pulled out her phone. 

“Reina are you okay?” Chris asked her worriedly, his eyebrows furrowed. She ignored him as she went to google her fingers shaking. 

What is the german translation for child?

Her breath caught in her throat as the word that had been floating around all day was suddenly in her face again. The pale bright screen reflected back on her and all she could see was the word kind. 

Looking up Reina saw it flash on his brown forehead. The red dot of a sniper, the kind you only see in movies. Her phone fell from her head and skidded to the floor as she ran forward as fast as she could. She was so close and she just she wasn’t going to make it in time to push them out of the way.   
“Move!!” She had screamed until, she heard this awful pop in her ears, like she had been dunked underwater, or if someone had fired a gun near her ears. And maybe they had because people were screaming. There were people running around her and looks of horror etched into their faces. And she was falling, hard on her knees. But everything was ringing. And who was that screaming? 

She blinked and the last thing she saw before she fell on her face was the King of Wakanda’s face. Shock had cracked open the clean and unbothered façade he had on earlier and he was staring at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. 

Everything didn’t just go black for Reina like they did in the movies. There was a deep crimson first and it slowly melted away into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow ! Thank y'all for liking my first chapter! Let me know how y'all are feeling about it lol and I'll keep going! Its been a minute since I've written but I'm trying! lol. More to come soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Short Beginning Chapter ! The next one will be longer and involve Tchalla! Let me know if you all are interested!


End file.
